MSc Interprofessional Health and Social
The MSc Interprofessional Health and Social Care programme was revalidated in September 2009. This is a long established and well evaluated programme within the Faculty of Health and Social Care. Themes throughout the revalidated programme reflect interprofessional collaboration and the psychodynamics of organisational practice that promote effective service delivery, service development, service evaluation, political and strategic leadership, and commissioning for world class quality. Other themes encompass the safeguarding agenda for vulnerable adults, best interest assessors, judgement and decision making, law and ethics, and solutions focused methods for organisational problem solving.
This programme is open to experienced and motivated senior practitioners with a health and social care background and who demonstrate a professional interest in working within the current political agenda, which advocates interprofessional working. It is suitable for practitioners who are required to lead, manage and integrate interprofessional perspectives for effective collaborative teams, across whole systems.
Current students include those practicing in a variety of contexts; nurses from all contexts of care, those managing critical care teams to managing and safeguarding adults , doctors (GP and AE specialists), social workers, social care managers, nursing home mangers, health visiting, paediatrics midwifery, podiatrists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists.
Effective interprofessional collaboration working practices are seen as essential to underpin individual/patient/client-centred services with staff working across professional and organisational boundaries. Many of the reforms required by the Government's drive for world class commissioning are related to collaborative working towards public services reform. The DH emphasises the need for practitioners to develop knowledge in relation to 'Skills for Health' and this in turn is linked with the 'Knowledge and Skills Framework (KSF)'.
As stated above, any new DH initiatives in 2010 onwards will continue to include more and further integration of health and social care agencies within the next five years. To meet the educational demands of these practitioners for collaborative cross boundary working, the programme team have created a range of generic, compulsory and optional modules that will support these initiatives.
Aims
All awards are consistent with the University-wide Postgraduate Academic Framework and the Postgraduate Programme Principles Document of the Faculty of Health & Social Care which aims to:
-
Establish a distinct interprofessional programme that affords students the opportunities to share diverse experiences and develop a holistic view of collaborative working within whole systems
-
Provide a creative educational environment where students can develop critical understanding of the complexities of health and social contexts of care through the use of critical social theory
-
Facilitate opportunities to enable students to revisit their professional values for the promotion of self awareness and the establishment of effective interprofessional collaboration
-
Facilitate the advancement of students 'capacity' and scholarship of engagement with health and social policies within the relevant theoretical, political, legal, and ethical frameworks
-
Develop students' perspectives of the international contexts of interprofessional practice and the discourses around chronic disabilities
Structure
There are two entries per year: the first week of October and the first week of March. It is a modular part-time programme offered over a 6 year registration period. The programme consists of 40 hours academic direction and the preferred choice of module delivery is 2 or 3 day blocks over a 3 to 4 month period. Current students find this arrangement compatible with their full-time professional employment.
Link to prospectus|